RHODYLIFE

A young immigrant's wanderlust

By KELLY SULLIVAN
Posted 10/28/20

By KELLY SULLIVAN Adalgisa Nancy Ciano was only 10 months old when she and her family arrived in America on Dec. 30, 1921, aboard the Dante Alighieri. Natives of Italy, they settled on Kingwood Avenue in Cranston and Adalgisa's 40-year-old father, Paolo

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RHODYLIFE

A young immigrant's wanderlust

Posted

Adalgisa Nancy Ciano was only 10 months old when she and her family arrived in America on Dec. 30, 1921, aboard the Dante Alighieri.

Natives of Italy, they settled on Kingwood Avenue in Cranston and Adalgisa’s 40-year-old father, Paolo Luigi Ciano, secured work with his new country’s Works Progress Administration.

Paolo and his wife, Maria Civita, were the parents of 10 children. If that wasn’t enough to keep them on their toes, Adalgisa’s wanderlust certainly would.

The young girl, who attended Hugh B. Bain Public School, had dreams of seeing the world outside of Rhode Island. On four occasions, her brother-in-law, James Corio, went off in search of her when she independently ventured off to New York or Boston.

In July 1938, the 17-year-old went more than a few steps further. Paolo had given his daughter his weekly paycheck for $27.50, which he told her she could use to purchase clothing with. Adalgisa cashed the check and fled.

She went on to New York and enlisted the services of the Travelers Aid Society, a female-led organization that provided single women with safe escort to transportation facilities or lodging. There, she met two other girls. Eighteen-year-old Marjorie Robinson had traveled to the Big Apple from Stillwell, Oklahoma. Nineteen-year-old Dorothy Newman had come from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was a ward of the juvenile court.

Adalgisa stayed in New York for two weeks. While her parents issued reports about her disappearance, she and her new friends were planning an adventure on the high seas. On July 20, the girls secretly boarded the R.M.S. Queen Mary. The ship arrived in Southampton on July 25. There, the authorities caught up to them.

Adalgisa and the other two girls were placed aboard the Aquitania on July 27 and brought back to America from England as “returned stowaways.” The ship docked at Ellis Island in New York on Aug. 2. However, Adalgisa’s adventure was far from over.

Paolo’s naturalization papers would not be certified until the following month. Because Adalgisa was a minor and her father was not yet a legal citizen of the United States, she was not eligible to re-enter the country.

Corio, who was the husband of her older sister Rosalia, immediately ventured out to New York where the young girl was allowed to talk to him and her mother. As an immigrant, she needed to be arraigned before a United States commissioner and remain there at Ellis Island until a verdict was issued regarding what actions would be taken.

Adalgisa returned home to Cranston soon after. In the years that followed, she married Thomas Paglio and put down roots with a family of her own. After her death on Feb. 29, 2004, was laid to rest in Saint Ann Cemetery.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.

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